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Shit Like This Is Why I Feel More Comfortable Being a Freelancer

 |  ESTIMATED READING TIME:  7 MINUTES

You can watch Brett’s Screw Nintendo video here.

Does Nintendo think we’re still living in the era of Feudal Japan or something?🤦🏻‍♂️What’s next? Raiding people’s homes while riding horses, and forcing Internet villagers to Harakiri themselves for not paying taxes in $rice, and $grain? This is really messed up, and super disheartening! 😡 No wonder I prefer being a freelancer to being a YouTuber — I could never deal with the overwhelming boredom of having to create content on a regular basis just to have some spiteful douchebag block my shit with a single tap or click. At one point, I used my own voice to create sound effects due to how terrified I was of greedy effed-in-the-head publishers ruining my partnership with YouTube. Ironically, only when I stopped using my channel that one of my videos got over 140K views. 😂 I was relieved to know that Sony had no problem with me teaching people how to play PS2 games via USB instead of discs. After all, even back in 2015, PS2 was ancient news, but Sony could’ve still pulled a Nintendo, and tried to make me hate all three companies — YouTube included — even more. 🤮

Anyway, love your content, Brett! And I admire your spirit through it all! Cheers!

Oh, and also Fuck YouTube for giving Nintendo that kind of power.

By the way, Brett, I can relate to your situation, but mine involves a different platform called Upwork (I’ve been in a situation where I had to restore a celebrity’s music video on YouTube multiple times, but that’s a story for another day, I guess). A Canadian customer accused me of installing a WordPress plugin on her website without consulting with her first, and when I showed her proof from our conversation that I did, in fact, consult with her first, she was kind of like, “Yeah, whatever, but next time consult with me first.” I saw that as a red flag, and decided not to work with her again, because in my experience, letting these weird “bossy pants” moments slide is never a good idea long-term, but because the contract was still open even though all the jobs were done, and all the milestones were approved by her without any complaints, knowing that it was our second contract (she left a 5-star review when we ended our first contract), my guess is that, because she felt rejected, and it’s hard to find reliable competent freelancers out there, her way of getting back at me was by leaving me a 4-star review, making sure I got 2 stars for communication, just because I was being real with her, and told her that I was no longer interested in working with her for pulling that “consult with me first” crap. My exact words were, “[…] So when you think it’s “honest” or “normal” to say stuff like “consult with me first”, knowing that you literally “okayed” the damn thing, you shouldn’t be surprised when I don’t touch anything at all from now on to avoid being accused of crap. For me, “Consult with me first” in that particular context is a red flag; it means if the world ended tomorrow, it would be because I installed Smart Coupons — it’s a hyperbole, mind you, but you get the point, I’m sure. I’ve dealt with enough people to know that using words out of context to assert dominance — consciously or subconsciously — leads to a crappy professional relationship every single time.”

By the way, Brett, I can relate to your situation, but mine involves a different platform called Upwork (I’ve been in a situation where I had to restore a celebrity’s music video on YouTube multiple times, but that’s a story for another day, I guess). A Canadian customer accused me of installing a WordPress plugin on her website without consulting with her first, and when I showed her proof from our conversation that I did, in fact, consult with her first, she was kind of like, “Yeah, whatever, but next time consult with me first.” I saw that as a red flag, and decided not to work with her again, because in my experience, letting these weird “bossy pants” moments slide is never a good idea long-term, but because the contract was still open even though all the jobs were done, and all the milestones were approved by her without any complaints, knowing that it was our second contract (she left a 5-star review when we ended our first contract), my guess is that, because she felt rejected, and the fact that it’s hard to find reliable competent freelancers out there, leaving me a 4-star review was her malicious attempt at hurting my reputation on Upwork, making sure I got 2 stars for communication, just because I was being real with her, and told her that I was no longer interested in working with her for pulling that “consult with me first” crap. My exact words were, “[…] So when you think it’s “honest” or “normal” to say stuff like “consult with me first”, knowing that you literally “okayed” the damn thing, you shouldn’t be surprised when I don’t touch anything at all from now on to avoid being accused of crap. For me, “Consult with me first” in that particular context is a red flag; it means if the world ended tomorrow, it would be because I installed Smart Coupons — it’s a hyperbole, mind you, but you get the point, I’m sure. I’ve dealt with enough people to know that using words out of context to assert dominance — consciously or subconsciously — leads to a crappy professional relationship every single time.”

I’m sure you can tell that my English is fine. Heck, another Canadian (male) customer of mine, when he saw a screenshot of the 2 stars for Communication, he was literally like, “2 stars for communication? You communicate better than all of Upwork hahah” (I’ve literally copied that from our Telegram conversation just now, by the way. 😂) I didn’t know she left me a 4-star review until after I noticed that my Job Success Score dropped from 100% to 99%. I thought to myself, “It has to be something she did.” Thing is, when I woke up the next morning, I expected a message from her saying something diplomatic like, “Oh, well, good luck in your future endeavors.” But instead, she actually blocked me out of nowhere while I was still trying to update a report, detailing every single change I made to her website in order to make things easier for the next freelancer she hires. The fact that she blocked me made me kind of reluctant about leaving her a review as a client, but the Job Success Score dropping to 99% made me think, “Screw it! I have to know what she said in the review.” As it turned out, she didn’t say anything; she just left a 4-star rating, making sure I got 2 stars for Communication. Thing is, I’m not a native speaker, so not everyone is happy when you’re not a native speaker, and yet you can express yourself in ways that even native speakers — probably — can’t. Thankfully, since I’ve recently acquired the TOP RATED badge for the second time (first time ever took 5 months, while the second time took only 5 weeks), I remembered that I had the option to request a single feedback removal once every 3 months, including negating its effect on the Job Success Score. Man, it really felt like I was dreaming! In fact, it was so unbelievable that I thought I had to choose one or the other as if it were a “lesser of two evils” kind of thing, because I know how platforms always side with “the other party that makes them money”; either keep the 4-star review on my public profile, and wait 2 weeks for my JSS to go back to 100%, or vice-versa. To be honest, I wasn’t holding my breath, because I know how platforms are obsessed with the idea that, “The customer’s always right.” But here comes the shock, and a positive one at that: Upwork actually removed her feedback in less than 8 hours, and I got my perfect JSS back exactly after 14 days. Dude, it was such a “faith in humanity restored” kind of moment, you know. Normally, I would lash out, and start cussing, so even when I’m right, it wouldn’t matter, but I tried to play it smart this time, and be as reasonable as possible without using any so-called profanity. Although I got my perfect JSS back, I know that one day some disgruntled customer will leave me a crappy review just for the heck of it, knowing that the main reason I prefer providing services to selling goods is the fact that I can control every aspect of my service, and the quality thereof, so leaving someone like me a bad review will never ever be because my quality became crap all of a sudden, since I’m not selling potentially expired milk for Pete’s sake! 😂

Anyway, the whole point of sharing this story with you, Brett, is that, if things go your way even when you’re not remotely optimistic about a situation, surely keeping it upbeat wouldn’t hurt, don’t you think? We all know that Nintendo is the he-who-shall-not-be-named of video game companies, but still, you never know when a reform — of sorts — is going to be on the horizon. I’m not trying to be naive here. I personally went from having my Level-Two Seller Fiverr account suspended indefinitely, mainly because a customer was too clumsy to notice the instructions I sent her, to being able to remove feedback on a much superior platform, and keep my reputation intact. It’s small victories like these that make me appreciate YouTubers like you, Steve Burke, and Linus Sebastian. I really see myself in you, guys, because like you, I don’t like letting things slide regardless of who or what company I’m dealing with, and if professionalism requires that I let companies get away with shady business practices, then screw professionalism! Guys like us are proof that, “the pen is mightier than the sword.” Over, and out. ✌🏻